


The Game of Life (Moon Magician in the Night)

by OnceABlueMoon



Category: Magic Kaito
Genre: Aoko and Kaito are both kid, Babies, Children, F/M, Flirting, Grief/Mourning, Heist, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, M/M, Multi, Mustaches, Parenthood, Polyamory, Shared secret identity, This ship snuck up on me now I gotta deal with the fall out, these tags are all terribly out of order but that's that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 14:42:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16307129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceABlueMoon/pseuds/OnceABlueMoon
Summary: ‘’Nakamori Ginzo has the hots for his neighbours and that’s a fact.’’In which Nakamori Ginzo falls for the Kuroba’s, Toichi dies and Kaito and Aoko grow up as siblings and become KID.





	The Game of Life (Moon Magician in the Night)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [One for sorrow two for joy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11192622) by [Dissenter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dissenter/pseuds/Dissenter). 



> Disclaimer: I do not own Magic Kaito
> 
> Warnings: Chikage, Ginzo’s Boner For Toichi’s Facial Hair, Toichi’s Pokerface, Grief

Nakamori Ginzo has the hots for his neighbours and that’s a fact.

* * *

‘’Well, he _llo,’’_ says the lady, leaning against the frame of the door. She tilts her head, letting her eyes glide slowly from his head to his toes. Her eyes reaching the floor, the corners of her mouth curl up. Turning around, she shouts into the apartment: ‘’Hey Toichi, there’s a stud out here, and I think he brought cake _just for us!’’_

This wasn’t what Ginzo expected when he came to greet the new neighbours, his baby girl in the crook of his arm, the apple pie balanced on the other. He didn’t know what baffled him more: her sheer brazenness, or the fact that she’d done it despite the fact he had a baby in his arms.

Okay, yes, maybe it’s the second. He had kissed dating goodbye after his ex dumped their daughter on his doorstep. He loves the little creature more than anything, but the promise of a screaming baby on date night is not exactly a great advertisement when it came to starting a relationship.

A man appears in the hallway behind her. Dressed in some nice trousers and the kind of shirt Nakamori had to buy recently since his usual button ups didn’t exactly deal well with baby burps, he looks like the average Japanese man, even if his facial hair is unfairly well-groomed.  God, does Ginzo love facial hair.

The woman beams up at him. ‘’Darling, look!’’

The man rests his head on top of hers, putting his arms around her. The pose is natural, open and loose. It looks good on them.

‘’My, what an attractive stranger you found.’’

Ginzo blinks. What?

No, it has to be a hallucination. No man would say something like that in such a sedate, calm manner, not to mention with such a straight face. The man- Toichi? – couldn’t be agreeing with his wife (? Or is it significant other?). Agreeing with his wife who… hit on Ginzo.

He felt faint.

Attempting to salvage the increasingly awkward situation- on his part, because the lady had clearly no shame and Ginzo could feel his cheeks reddening- he brandishes the apple pie towards them as if to shield him from her clutches. ‘’I’m Nakamori Ginzo, your neighbour, and this is for you.’’

The lady claps in her hands excitedly. ‘’A courting gift! My oh my!’’

The flush creeps down Ginzo’s neck. ‘’No- I mean- It’s a welcoming gift!’’ and once again trust it forward, only for it to tumble down, out of his hand. The metal pie casing falls onto the ground with a mighty clatter. Inside the apartment, a baby begins to scream, and Aoko, hearing her brethren cry, joins the screeching choir with a mighty bellow.

All three adults wince.

‘’Want to come in?’’ asks the lady as her husband rushes inside, ‘’I’m Chikage, but I can’t promise I won’t bite.’’

Against his better judgement, Ginzo walks in.

* * *

It is, without a doubt, the best decision in his entire life.

* * *

Three hours later, they’re sitting on the couch, the children finally quiet. The apple pie is still strewn about in the hallway in front of the door, but nobody can particularly find it in themselves to care about it. It’s that kind of night, the kind of exhaustion associated with screaming children, and Ginzo is quietly complaining about how hard it is to find a good babysitter. ‘’Not to say that Akemi-chan isn’t a nice girl, but she’s sixteen. She’s not _equipped_ to watch a baby for long. I have to work- she has school, and her mother can only offer to watch her so many times before she gets tired of it.’’

Chikage nods. ‘’I wouldn’t know what to do without Toichi, really. Raising a baby all on my own, I can’t even imagine!’’

‘’Actually,’’ says Toichi, ‘’Why don’t you leave her here during the day? I’m a magician, so I usually do my shows in the evening. Kaito certainly won’t mind a playmate. You wouldn’t have to pay a babysitter anymore either.’’

That sounds like a dream come true, but Ginzo has pride and is not about to accept charity. It might be hard, being a single father, but he said he would do this, so he would. End of the story. It’s too good an offer to pass up, though, so he says: ‘’Alright, but only if you let me pay for _all_ the baby food. Kaito’s too.’’

Toichi smiles.

That’s how their arrangement starts.

* * *

Ginzo stumbles in night after night to get his daughter, the bags underneath his eyes getting deeper and deeper until Toichi smiles that polite smile, forces him down onto a chair and tells him: ‘’Eat with us, or I’ll let Chikage sit on you.’’

Chikage looks at him like a hawk with her prey in sight, eyes gleaming amber with the lust for blood, and Ginzo stays put. The threat is crystal clear. Chikage _will_ use his lap as a chair if he doesn’t and Ginzo certainly wouldn’t know how to handle that.

At the end of the night, when he goes home, he has to admit it. Not having to cook after hours of work and having three pairs of eyes instead of just his exhausted ones on his daughter for a few hours more takes a lot of the stress away.

Eating with them becomes the norm. During the weekdays, Toichi and Chikage cook, during the weekend, it’s Ginzo’s turn. On Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, Toichi performs, so they see him off at the door, Ginzo and Chikage wrangling the kids. It’s a steady routine, wake, deliver Aoko to Toichi, work, eat, be with the kids, put them to bed, talk until the late hours with Chikage and Toichi. Then take Aoko home, careful not to wake her up. Sleep.

It warms Ginzo from the inside, in a way he’d nearly forgotten a home could.

* * *

‘’You know that phantom thief, Kaitou KID?’’ Ginzo asks one night, Kaito in his arms as he sits in the rocking chair, going back and forth.

‘’Hmm,’’ Toichi murmers, finger trailing over Aoko’s cheek when she lets out a content murmur, tucked safely into his arms, ‘’I hear he’s quite the figure.’’

He reaches for his teacup, taking a long drink.

‘’He’s been gaining so much attention that they’ve decided to put a KID task force together.’’

Toichi spits out his drink, narrowly avoiding the baby. ‘’A w _hat?!’’_

Chikage cackles at him and the wet patch that’s forming on his chest, shirt fabric wet, tea dripping off his chin. ‘’He _has_ been on TV quite a lot lately.’’

Ginzo beams. ‘’Exactly! And they put _me_ in charge of it!’’

Chikage gasps excitedly. ‘’The drama!’’

‘’Huh? Why drama?’’

Chikage puts a hand over her forehead, ‘’Don’t you think KID is terribly romantic? The white suit, the suave smile, the _moustache.’’_

KID’s face is always obscured in photo’s, but Ginzo can’t blame her for liking a man with a good moustache.

Toichi shakes his head. ‘’Congratulations on the promotion.’’

And that’s when Ginzo decides to take pity on him, and hand him the napkins.

* * *

Ginzo thinks nothing of the whole debacle until he’s at the heist. The whole affair is exciting- he’d wanted to shout in joy when they, the _actual KID task force,_ were called forward as the _specialized unit._

Kaitou KID might’ve been at large for a year and half now, first in Paris, then in Tokyo, but that was going to end tonight. They are going to catch KID, Ginzo is sure.

That is, of course, until he actually s _ees_ KID.

He appears like a ghost in the night, white suit fitting perfectly, cape gently fluttering in the wind, moonlight lighting up his elegant visage as he takes off his top hat to his audience- the police. He’s standing on top of a chandelier, but however the crystal glints, it does not shine more than he does.

Ginzo squints, attempting to study his face. It’s always just out of view, just blurred so in the photos and footage that he couldn’t see it quite right. Now, seeing the thief in person, he takes the opportunity to take it in.

His blood freezes in his veins.

No matter what magic obscures the upper half of KID’s face with that monocle, Ginzo has spent far too much time obsessing over that moustache not to recognize it.

Kaitou KID is Kuroba Toichi, and Ginzo’s heart is trying to beat it’s way out of his chest by force if it must. For a moment, Ginzo forgets to breathe.

Arakawa shouts, and he wakes again, breathing jump starting with a shivering exhale and a greedy inhale. He can’t afford to be distracted now. He has to perform, just as much as KID- Toichi- has to. He has to play his part. He gets up, notices the trap KID has placed, and sends it crashing down. There is no time to panic. This is time to perform.

He’ll prove himself worthy of that promotion, and Toichi better believe it.

* * *

‘’How did you know?’’ Toichi asks.

‘’How did I- how did _I know?!’’_ Ginzo splutters, ‘’Your moustache!’’

Chikage laughs, lips curling as she rocks the children’s cradle with her foot. ‘’Ah, you do like his moustache so!’’

Ginzo turns red.

Toichi just sighs, cradling his head in his hands. ‘’So my moustache was the star of the show? I assume the actual show was disappointing then.’’

And Ginzo stands up, grabs his hands and wrenches them away from his face, staring him straight into the eyes. ‘’It was the best goddamn night of my _life._ ’’

The last thing Ginzo sees before he presses his lips against Toichi’s, are his dark eyes widening in wonder as his poker face, for once, falls. It’s too many teeth, too little lip, but it’s fantastic and it’s t _hem._

Chikage cackles. ‘’My, oh my. Whatever shall I do, my husband ran off to do the dirty with his best friend! Using the same moves to seduce him as he seduced me. The bastard didn’t even get creative!’’

Toichi chuckles low as he and Ginzo separate, his hands trailing along the sides of Ginzo’s face even as he glances up at his wife. ‘’Come here, Phantom Lady, you steal kisses better than I.’’

‘’Oh, I don’t know. That kiss you stole from me in mid-air on a motorbike while we fell down to the concrete was pretty spectacular.’’ Chikage ribs, but she comes over, tilts his chin up and smooches Ginzo until he’s dazed, sandwiched between them.

‘’Tag teaming,’’ he says, ‘’This is tag teaming.’’

‘’No,’’ Chikage breathes directly into his ear, letting a shiver work its way down his spine, ‘’This is a threesome.’’

‘’A trio,’’ Toichi purrs into his other ear.

‘’My death,’’ says Ginzo decisively.

He stumbles with them to the bedroom anyway. They get about five minutes of fooling around until one baby wakes, begins to scream and wakes the other up so the screeching gets even louder. It’s a long night.

* * *

About four in the morning, Ginzo looks up at Toichi and Chikage with bags underneath his wide, wide eyes and goes: ‘’Wait- Phantom Lady?!’’

They laugh at him. Loudly, and with hearts so full of warmth Ginzo can’t even get mad.

* * *

He loves teaching the kids. It’s so rewarding to see. He teaches them to walk, out of his arms to Toichi’s, as Chikage films the entire thing, cooing all the while. Aoko walks first, Kaito goes straight after her. That’s how they usually do things. One is rarely seen without the other, to the point where the neighbours have begun calling them the twins, despite the fact that they still don’t live in the same house.

Officially, that is, because there is definitely more sleeping over than nights apart.

They grow so quickly.

 Chikage teaches them how to do gravity-defying stunts, and likes giving Ginzo heart attacks in the process until she bullies him into joining. His heart is slightly calmer by then, but only by a hair. Toichi, on the other hand, gets _begged_ to teach the kids magic tricks.

Ginzo joins those lessons too.

‘’Stealing my tricks to use them against me at heists?’’ Toichi asks, a twinkle dancing in his eyes, leaning against the table. He reaches behind Ginzo’s ear and makes a coin appear.

Ginzo throws his head back and laughs. ‘’I don’t think you’ve got a thing to worry about with the only cop who’ll release you the minute you’re caught.’’

Toichi cocks his head. ‘’I thought you went after me full tilt?’’

That is Toichi-ese for pouting. It’s entirely unnecessary, though. ‘’I would never once hold back, but c _atching_ you would be counterproductive to  both my home life a _nd_ my job.’’

‘’Isn’t dating me a moral hazard?’’

Ginzo shrugs, letting the cards glide through his hands once again. ‘’To the letter of the law? Yes. In truth? No. I mean, the Kid task force is a beautiful idea, but it’s technically a waste of money, having so many people employed to catch _one_ repeat offender who steals high profile jewels, but always returns them. You even have a nobody gets hurt rule. The only reason we should chase after you is because the owners of the gems are high profile and we’d possibly get in a whole boatload of trouble if we didn’t follow the letter of the law this time.’’

Toichi nodded. ‘’I did wonder why you didn’t just place some rookies on my case. I have the greatest fun with you chasing after me, but putting competent, well-trained personnel on my case does seem quite wasteful.’’

‘’That is,’’ Ginzo says, ‘’Because it’s a s _how._ At first, people volunteered to do your heists to prove themselves, but once the TV crews got involved, we had to present a united front. We have to appear at least somewhat competent on camera, and, as we’ve discovered, it gives us a chance to present a ‘human face’ of the police to the people. We tend to be only brought up in the news for either our own misconduct or the absolutely horrifying cases: murder, kidnapping, rape, the likes. KID gives us the chance to be something else. Something more approachable, but still the upholder of the law.

The amount of reported crimes, both small and big, has increased. We suspect it’s not because there is more crime, but because people are coming forth with crime that previously went unreported. You’re _helping us._ KID getting caught has very little worth to the police, because KID continuing his heists is very valuable.’’

‘’So basically,’’ Chikage chirps, appearing behind them, ‘’You’re saying that your job is to be a pretty police face on TV and get them lots of crowd confidence.’’

‘’You forgot the competency part.’’ Ginzo snorts but leans into her when she kisses his cheek.

Toichi taps against his bottom lip, a little tongue in the cheek. ‘’I don’t think she minds the pretty face on TV.’’

Chikage laughs. ‘’You bet I don’t. Though I’ve got to say, it’s even better up close.’’ And she pulls Ginzo into a kiss.

He’s happy. They’re happy. The kids are learning magic. It’s a beautiful day.

* * *

Heists are the part of Ginzo’s life where he chases. Where he searches for Toichi’s trail, left in glitter and glass and reflections and smoke, as it shrivels up in the morning dew, disappearing right in front of his eyes. It’s looking right through the magic to see another trick behind it, chasing after a masked man knowing what’s behind that monocle and being intrigued anyway. Smoke and mirrors, and a game larger than life.

The Task Force is a shrine to a man so evasive he must be one with the moonlight, living and breathing only its light, melting into the shadow until the next moon.

It makes him feel so alive, this game.

It also makes him terribly aware of how precious life is. Toichi, KID, the creature of moonlight and shadows, is not the only one waiting in the dark anymore.

Darkness encroaches on moonlight, and begins to tear it apart thread by thread; It’s subtle at first, the feeling of eyes in one's neck, of animal bloodlust following you everywhere, but quickly it begins to stink of gasoline, of dynamite and tricks-not-KIDs. The fires are put out by the police officers. The explosion is avoided by KID, leading the people away before it is set off. It’s so easy to write it off as accidents at first. So easy to see as one of KID’s own plans gone wrong. But they aren’t.

It becomes awfully obvious when KID’s almost shot at the scene.

At home, Chikage grows increasingly frustrated, insisting on joining Toichi at heists, and Ginzo all but screams his head off on the scene trying to keep everybody safe. Heists dwindle down as the danger increases. Ginzo tries to get permission to look into the disturbances during the heists, but access to the buildings surrounding the heist locations where the sniper must be is barred by the higher-ups, and it c _loses his throat because that means the enemy is inside their own ranks too._

Sometimes he feels like he can’t breathe, but the kids are still safe, and they’re trying to keep up a pretence of normalcy for them at least.

Time goes on, and without the heists, it seems safe enough. Toichi gets his dream show- an escape show, ala Houdini. But this time, he takes it a step higher. He lets them tie him down, surround him with chains, put him into a rollercoaster bound for a burning obstacle.

It’s going to be on TV, the whole theme park is full of people coming to watch him. Ginzo, Chikage and the children are in the stands. It’s scorching hot, the wooden stands don’t help and the children are busily slurping their slushies- occasionally stopped by their brain freezes. Aoko’s is blue, Kaito’s is red, and they begged for them at least half an hour before Ginzo took pity on them and bought them for heat relief.

This is the premiere, and it is going to be grand; The kids deserved a treat.

The carriage with Toichi in it hits the burning obstacle and explodes.

Kaito drops his slushie.

At first, Ginzo is surprised. An extra trick? But with the staff panicking below, the world freezes. Kaito begins crying- whether about the explosion or the dropped slushie isn’t entirely clear, but Ginzo isn’t exactly in the right headspace to determine that at the moment.

He can’t breathe, watching as Chikage jumps up, fighting her way to the front, clambering through the stands, pushing people wherever she goes. The children are asking what’s happening, but he can’t answer, his hands a death grip on theirs. They’ve got no choice but stay put. The smell of smoke and burned flesh reaches them, and he gags. Bile rises to his throat, and the carriage just… rolls on. A part of it is derailed, but not enough to throw it off the rails entirely and it’s st _uck_.

The children are panicking now too, but all Ginzo can do is gather them against his chest and make them _not see this,_ because this will haunt their nightmares forever just as it will his. He, on the other hand, can’t look away, not even with Aoko’s slushie now all over his arm, the icy liquid dripping down his burning flesh. He can’t look away from the tragedy. Can’t look away from Chikage ready to climb the goddamn rollercoaster herself. Can’t stop from watching as the TV crew quits the filming. Can’t stop hearing the screaming. Can’t stop hearing the sirens. Can’t stop hearing as they declare Toichi dead.

He knew, but he did not want to.

His happy, lovely life is gone in one single bang.

Toichi’s dead. And no matter what anyone says, he knows it was murder.

* * *

Chikage and Toichi are waiting for the knock on the door. They’re waiting for the bell to ring. They’re waiting to hear the keys turning in the lock. They’re waiting for Toichi to c _ome home._ But he never does.

That’s what death is, after all.

They attend a funeral, but Ginzo keeps waiting for a heist notice. After months, they put away Toichi’s breakfast cup where it stands next to the coffee machine and Ginzo begins to cry and Chikage has a breakdown in his arms and this _isn’t working._

Toichi is supposed to be there. Ginzo doesn’t know what he expected, but somehow… Somehow he expected Toichi to leave his grave and crawl home. Some part of him is mad that he doesn’t, even though he knows that’s unrealistic.

Their significant other is dead, _murdered_ , no matter what the police says, and it tears them apart inside.

All the while, they’re still waiting. Ginzo doesn’t know if they’ll ever stop.

They all move into the Nakamori residence, because the KID cave is located in the Kuroba residence, and KID was what got Toichi killed. They’d moved from the apartments they’d originally occupied to two houses years ago. The only reason they hadn’t moved into one house was exactly the same as their reason now: the KID cave. Nakamori Ginzo could never be found living in the same house as a criminal’s den, and that was that.

Now Ginzo wishes they’d done so anyway, taken the risk, because the little time it would have given him more with Toichi would’ve been more precious than the world.

Life goes on. Chikage and Ginzo turn up at parent conferences with teachers and get called ‘’ Mr and Mrs Nakamori’’ or ‘’ Mr and Mrs Kuroba’’ and smile awkwardly as it hurts, hurts, hurts, because there is a third parent that should be present right there, and he _isn’t._

Kaito and Aoko behave more and more erratically, and sending them to a therapist only makes them play a game of ‘’who can make the grief counsellor run for the hills faster’’. It’s a mess, but Ginzo doesn’t know how to deal with it, and personally, he thinks he and Chikage can use a grief counsellor too. But how do you tell someone: ‘’Our husband was murdered right in front of our eyes and now there’s a hole a person wide in our lives, because he liked playing phantom thief.’’

Of course it isn’t that simple- God, even blaming Toichi’s activities as KID isn’t that simple. Not when he started doing it to protect Chikage in the first place. Not when Ginzo had enjoyed chasing after him. Not when the world loved watching him give his shows as moonlight magician.

Chikage is breaking. He knows this. Kaitou KID was made for her, their son named for him, the workplace in their house, and she can’t take it. She needs time and space, and she’ll never get it here. Chikage is a bird, made to fly, and only assisting the KID cases kept her grounded enough to stay in Tokyo. Toichi is dead, and she wants to be there for the kids, but it’s killing her, and in the end, Ginzo is the one to tell her to go.

‘’I love you  more than this.’’ He says.

‘’I’m sorry,’’ She says.

‘’Don’t be.’’ And with a kiss to her forehead, he lets her go.

* * *

Kaito moves into the Nakamori residence permanently as Chikage leaves for Paris. Ginzo sighs and takes the boy with him, explaining to the kids that it’s not their fault. But certain things are hard to explain, and a parent leaving is one of them. He does the best he can.

Chikage visits for about a week every other month and skypes with both the children and him at least twice a week. She’s not there, but she is present, and god, does Ginzo love her. They visit Paris in the summers, spending weeks at a time as a family unit.

Some nights as he lies in his empty, empty bed, he stares at the ceiling and stews in his anger, thinking of Toichi’s murder. This is what Chikage tried to get away from, but he can’t. The only thing that stops him from hunting those bastards down is that he's got two kids to tuck in at night, who have only one present parent left.

He _can’t_ put himself in danger like that. They need him.

So he stews at night, anger filling his bones, pushed down again and again until a well of fury sinks into him and becomes part of his being. But he is a father. He has no time for it.

* * *

It’s a Monday morning when he walks into Kaito’s room and discovers his son with a skirt on. Kaito freezes, staring up at him with wide eyes, and Ginzo… Ginzo asks. ‘’Kaito, are you a girl?’’

And Kaito says: ‘’No, I’m Aoko.’’

An identical head pops up from behind the bed, dressed in Kaito’s clothes, make-up flawlessly mimicking his face, only the wig sitting a little off on her head, her hair a little too long to fit underneath it comfortably. ‘’I’m Kaito today,’’ says Aoko.

Ginzo tries to understand. ‘’Is this a for a trick?’’

They’ve both been practising magic rigorously as if perfecting each and every trick in the book will make their father come back to praise them.

‘’No, tou-san,’’ Aoko says, looking at him insistently, ‘’ _I’m really Kaito today.’’_

‘’Alright, but why?’’

Kaito suddenly looks like he wants to jump out of the window. Like he wants to escape. Like he’s _afraid._

Ginzo never wants to see that look on his son’s face again.

Aoko shuffles towards him and takes Kaito’s hand, hopping from one foot to the other. ‘’Promise you won’t send us back to the therapist?’’

And her face is so utterly serious, so dead set on it, that Ginzo says: ‘’Yes.’’

He has a feeling he’s going to regret it. There’s weight behind those words, and he’ll be held to them. But he doesn’t like this situation. Doesn’t like that they fear being sent to a therapist like this. So he listens intently, waiting for what is to come.

‘’Some days,’’ Kaito says, with a shuddering breath, ‘’Being Aoko is easier.’’

‘’Some days,’’ Aoko says, squeezing Kaito’s hand, ‘’We can’t be ourselves.’’

‘’Some days,’’ Ginzo says, with tears in his eyes, ‘’Your father’s death crushes me. But on all days I love you, and on all days I want you to heal the best you can. If this  is the way to do it, then do.’’

He embraces the two of them, squeezing them tight against him, and wishes he’d never have to let them go.

The twins are horribly co-dependent. They melt together in ways humans are not supposed to, the lines between their personalities blurring until it sometimes seems like they are a single entity. But sending people to a therapist they don’t want has never worked, and he promised them beside, so Ginzo does the best he can and watches over them. He loves them, his children, more than anything the world has to offer.

* * *

Kaito’s fifteen when he expresses his desire to move back into the Kuroba residence and Ginzo sees him go with a heavy heart. Chikage moves Kaito’s stuff into the entertainment room.

Ginzo might have plausible deniability, and no fingerprint of his would ever be found in Toichi’s lair, but he _knows_ where the entrance is, thank you very much. It’s only a matter of time before Kaito finds it, and though he wishes they could keep it hidden forever, the kids are too smart for that. They’ll figure it out, one way or another.

Discovery by finding the KID cave is most likely the kindest way. It won’t soften the blow of Toichi’s murder, but it will bedazzle them for at least a little, show them the dream before the nightmare, and Ginzo understands why Chikage wants to show them that first. Show them the part of Toichi that made crime _magic._ The part that enchanted them all, the core of who he was.

Toichi left one last show behind for his children, and Chikage and Ginzo won’t be the ones to ruin it.

* * *

After eight years, seven months and 26 days of waiting, Kaitou KID reappears.

‘’I staked my entire career on Kaitou KID! He’s my reason for living!’’ Ginzo yells so easily when his subordinates ask him to handle other cases instead of keeping up with KID.

It’s not true. Or it was, at one time, but by now he lives for Toichi’s legacy, for his own, for Chikage’s. He lives for Kaito and Aoko, and nothing will ever matter more than them. But… They _must_ be KID, right?

* * *

‘’It wasn’t. It was Jii.’’

Ginzo stares at the screen in front of him, his sheer surprise travelling thousands of miles through a simple camera and the internet towards Chikage. Skype is a wonderful invention. ‘’ _Jii?!_ Toichi’s stagehand?’’

Chikage sips her drink, the Parisian sun lighting her hair up until it looks like there is a halo around her. ‘’That very one, yes. The children took over from him at the end, though. They know about the murder.’’

Ginzo rubs his temples. ‘’I didn’t expect anything else.’’

Chikage nods, before a mischievous twinkle appears in her eyes. ‘’Kaito and Aoko squealed to me the minute they got home about how I never told them that Toichi was KID. But the greatest joke is that they think _you don’t know.’’_

Ginzo is so flabbergasted he begins to laugh. ‘’Nearly seventeen years have we been together, nearly nine of those with Toichi, and they think that’s hideable? Just for that I’m going to ask them where KID’s moustache disappeared off to the next heist.’’

Chikage cackles. ‘’I don’t know what will be funnier- Kaito’s reaction with his obsession with his whole three upper lip hairs, or Aoko who has _more_ upper lip hair than he does.’’ She taps her bottom lip with her straw. ‘’Do film it for me, darling. I can’t wait to see that happen. The slow realization they’ve been had, that you _know._ Oh, it will be glorious!’’

With a grin on his face, Ginzo promises.

* * *

Hakuba trying his damnest best to find evidence to prove that Kaito is KID is hilarious. He thought of trying KID in court as a solid option. Ginzo, who has spent years and years on the task force, knows that any actual evidence always 'got lost' by accident somehow. The great thing was that he didn't even need to make it disappear- others did that for him.

The heists were doing Hakuba good, though. It’s one of the few times Ginzo sees the kid actually have fun. KID forces him out of his comfort zone- into thinking outside the box, into using that giant brain of his that so quickly got bored.

Aoko and Kaito's intentions, on the other hand... Those he didn't trust. (The last time he'd seen looks quite that predatory, he'd ended up in bed with Toichi and Chikage. And while that had ended in the greatest relationship of his life, Aoko and Kaito were menaces. Ginzo quite frankly pitied Hakuba-kun.)

* * *

Once at home that day, Ginzo doesn't say anything, just sighs really, really deeply, rests his face in his hands for a minute. Then he gets up to play the game because who is he fooling- Aoko and Kaito are just as much Toichi and Chikage’s children as his, and Ginzo misses the game, even if it's dangerous.

He understands better than anyone because their motivation for this is not hard to figure out. He’s spent eight years with anger in his bones and a fire in his soul, stewing over Toichi’s murder, and now the time has come for the children to take up the mantle of KID. It’s not the healthiest coping method, and certainly a dangerous one, but they’re the children of phantom thieves. They’re made equally of moonlight and shadows and mix together in a way humans should not. They stand on chandeliers, shine more than crystal and are more beautiful than any magic one can imagine.

They declare war on the world, and who is he to stop them?

They take to it like they were born to do it, and perhaps they were.

**Author's Note:**

> I got inspired by Dissenter’s amazing fic One for Sorrow, Two for Joy, in which Aoko and Kaito are KID together. Please go read it, because it’s absolutely awesome! 
> 
> Also, a few small things in this fic highlighted and explained: 
> 
> The reason Snake killed Toichi was because it was all too easy to project his own goal onto KID- why give the gems back after all, if you weren’t searching for Pandora? 
> 
> The reason why he tried at the heists first was because it seemed like the easiest option- killing an anonymous thief seemed easier than killing a civilian identity. However, Toichi was at high alert during heists, so it kept getting foiled. They moved on to killing Toichi’s unmasked person. 
> 
> In the series, the entrance to the KID cave is in Kaito’s bedroom- which seemed rather odd to me, as it would mean that if Kaito had the same room all those years, Toichi would’ve had to sneak in and out of his son’s room at night to get into it. As such, I made the entrance be in the entertainment room originally, and had Kaito move in at a later age, after Toichi’s death.


End file.
